Glasgow or London?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Glasgow if you want a compact trip, where museums and most of the nightlife sit within walking reach of the centre, and you accept rain in every month, summer included.
Choose London if you want depth: far more museums, restaurants and attractions, a longer usable season with highs reaching 24°C, and three theme parks within reach for children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Glasgow leads by 36 points.36
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 3 | 47 |
| Coast distance | 3 km | 43 km |
| Water distance | 3 km | — |
Places to eat. London leads by 25 points.25
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 88 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 740 | 3,317 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 29 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. London leads by 27 points.27
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 32 | 148 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 13 | 49 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 41 | 33 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
Nightlife. London leads by 32 points.32
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 95 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,078 | 5,327 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 654 | 2,443 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 61 | 46 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 73 | 312 |
Nature & day trips. London leads by 2 points.2
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 16 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 12 | 14 |
| Land share of disc % | 91 | 97 |
| Park area within 2 km | 56 hectares | 84 hectares |
Good for families. London leads by 34 points.34
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 13 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 56 hectares | 84 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. London leads by 36 points.36
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 89 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 80 | 649 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Glasgow and London are level on 54.
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. London leads by 20 points.20
| Glasgow | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.6 °C to 18.9 °C | 8.2 °C to 23.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 102 mm to 207 mm | 38 mm to 67 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Glasgow's advantage is scale you can walk. Its museums cluster tightly around the centre and most of its drinking venues sit near it, so evenings need little travel. It also has water, a sea peaking at 15°C in August, swimmable only in theory.
London has many times as many notable places within walking distance of its centre, and far more museums and restaurants, with 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Glasgow's 2. For families, about twice the park space near the centre and 3 theme parks against 1.
Where they are alike
Neither city is short of countryside: about 16% of the land around each is protected, so day trips out of both lead into open land rather than more city.
Their year follows the same shape. Both are coolest in January, at 7-8°C, and warmest in July, and both see rain in every month. Neither has a month with the sea at 21°C or more, so swimming is not the reason to come to either.
Which traveller are you?
If you are going for museums and heritage, London: many times as many museums, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Glasgow's 2, with the notable sights concentrated close to the centre.
Families are better served in London too, with many times as many attractions near the centre, about twice the park space and 3 theme parks within reach against Glasgow's 1.
For a short weekend built around eating and drinking with little moving about, Glasgow works: most of its bars and clubs, and its museums, sit close to the centre, where London spreads about half its nightlife further out.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two cities carries no information. Both figures are read off the same national price level, so they are identical by construction, and the dataset holds no daily budget for either city. Nothing here tells you which trip costs more, so price accommodation and travel yourself before deciding.
A warm month is not a dry one. Glasgow's best summer months are among its wetter ones, 129-145mm in July and August, more than it sees in April, and London gets rain in every month despite the warmer highs. Both need indoor fallbacks.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Glasgow: 1991-2020 normals, Glasgow Airport (11.5 km from centre). London: 1991-2020 normals, London Heathrow Airport (22.5 km from centre).
Glasgow is at its best from June to August, with highs of 18-19°C. Its driest stretch comes earlier, April and May near 102mm, while July and August bring 129-145mm and December sits above 200mm.
London holds up longer. May to September runs 18-24°C with monthly rain of 46-53mm, and April and October, at 15°C and 16°C, stay workable. Even November keeps under 70mm, so the shoulder months are a real option rather than a compromise.
Getting there
| Flying from | Glasgow | London |
|---|---|---|
| MalagaAGP | 3 h 10 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 2 h 35 m €119-292 1 stop LGW · 40 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 55 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 2 h 10 m €79-116 LGW · 40 km |
| AlicanteALC | 3 h 0 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 2 h 20 m €66-100 LGW · 40 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 4 h 40 m €171-239 1 stop GLA · 11 km | 4 h 5 m €144-189 LGW · 40 km |
| TenerifeTFS, TFN | 4 h 30 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 4 h 5 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| Las PalmasLPA | 4 h 30 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 4 h 5 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| DalamanDLM | 4 h 30 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 3 h 55 m €147-257 LGW · 40 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 50 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 3 h 20 m €128-183 1 stop LGW · 40 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 6 h 45 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 7 h 10 m €518-651 1 stop LHR · 23 km |
| CancunCUN | 9 h 40 m no fares GLA · 11 km | 10 h 5 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Glasgow | London |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English |
| Currency | Pound Sterling (GBP) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | G230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 999 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 21 m | 4 m |
| Main airport | Glasgow Airport (GLA)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinations | London Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre220 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Glasgow | London |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 626,410 | 8,799,728 |
| People per km² | 190 | 5,598 |
| Museums within 10 km | 29 | 215 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 54 | 116 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Glasgow or London somewhere new.